Personal Trainer Advice/Tips

I had the opportunity to have a trainer come to my home once a week for 6 months. Not only did she kick my butt to workout, but she taught me about nutrition. Eating right makes a huge difference, and even if you don't workout you will see results if you change what you are eating.
I hope this helps some of you and you can incorporate some of these choices into your life.


Breakfast
Eggs, 1 slice of toast, Special K Cereal, Kashi Cereal, 1 serving of Oatmeal. You can also add berries. If you eat bananas try and eat them in the morning so your body can burn through them but limit yourself to 1 banana a day. Also if you use jam on your toast use sugar free or low sugar jam. Pancakes and Waffles need to be whole wheat and you also need to use sugar free syrup or low sugar. Peanut Butter on pancakes or waffles can be used but only use 1 serving of peanut butter a day and try to use more natural peanut butter. Cooking spray use olive oil cooking spray or Pam with olive oil. It uses Olive Oil rather than using Canola Oil.  Use skim milk or at least go to 1% to start out and then move to skim milk. Turkey bacon. It isn't that bad. Give it a shot. I love bacon but I will now be using Turkey bacon. To make it crispier cook it in the microwave.

Lunch
Limit yourself to 1 slice of bread when making sandwhiches or buying sandwhich thins they look like a bun in the bread section but are 1/2 the calories and you can have a top and bottom to your sandwhiches, or just eat the meat by itself without the bread, you can also make it a lettuce wrap and wrap your sandwhich in lettuce. Load up on the veggies on your sandwhich. Use Lean meats. Tuna is a great source but it needs to be Chunck Lite Tuna or a variation of Lite but it is loaded with protein and very minimal in fat. Use Light Mayo or Miracle whip or use Olive Oil Mayo or Miracle whip. Use wheat tortillas and add meat and beans for lunch. Use also fat free sour cream or plain greek yogurt. Turkey burgers. Or lettuce wrap your burger instead of using a bun.
Potatoes try to stick to sweet potatoes, yams, and red potatoes.

Snacks: Celery with a serving of Peanut Butter, Whole wheat crackers with tuna fish, Greek Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Salsa, You can also mix cottage cheese with the salsa and put in the microwave to melt it a bit and then scoop crackers into it, black beans, turkey slices, Apples, Strawberries, Protein shake. Vegetables, Salad with fat free dressings only. Special K bars, Kashi bars, almonds or low/non salted nuts.  You want to look for high Protein and the sugars to be less than 8 grams.

Dinner: Use whole wheat pastas, Ground turkey or very lean ground beef in recipes, whole wheat tortillas, Chicken boneless skinless, Pork Loin Chops, Sirloin cut meats. Try and get the leanest cuts of meats possible but if you can't make sure to cut off as much fat as possible before cooking it. This cuts down on the fat. Brown rice, beans, salmon.  Meat and Vegetables need to be the most on your plate. If you have a second helping have it be vegetables that are steamed or salad with the fat free dressing. Keep Carrots/Potatoes/Corn to a minimum if that is in the meal.

Sugars: Keep the 80/20% rule in mind. You are 80% eating right and then you have 20% that is your reward or your weekend sugar treat. Don't over indulge (easier said then done). Just have 2 cookies instead of having 6 at a time. It is baby steps at first. Some weeks Matt won't have any sugar or treats at all. Or when I know I will be going to a family get together I don't have any treats all week and then when I am there I get to have one or two. Then I have to stop myself. One thing I learned is don't eat cheesecake. I found out how bad that is for you. I don't know if I will eat it again. And I love cheesecake!

Drinks: Your goal is to drink a gallon of water a day. I have never hit this goal. Matt hits it now almost every day. I am a work in progress. Just drink as much water as you can. Don't drink juice or soda. If you have to drink something with flavor as water gets bland. You can drink G2 gatorade drinks for some flavor.

I will also send you some recipes.
Just watch the Nutritional Labels. It is amazing what is in some things. I had no idea until I starting looking. So try and keep sugars on each label at 8 grams or below, Protein as high as you can get, Carbs can be equal to Protein but need to be good carbs and Fat you want to look at Saturated fat. If it says total fat is 5.0 grams and Saturated fat is 4.5 grams or 4.0 grams you probably don't want that item as it is almost all saturated fat. You want the saturated fat to be minimal or lower than the total fat in %.

You should start at 1400-1500 calories a day, Set your fat at 31 grams of fat a day, 140 grams of Carbs a day, 140 grams of Protein a day. Track this on Myfitnesspal.com or livestrong.com and enter all your foods in for the first couple of days and see what things look like. You have to eat at least 4 meals a day but you do want to shoot for 6 meals every day so your matabolism starts working faster and burning more. I don't hit my protein every day but I try to stay within the carbs and fat grams per day or less.

Things to avoid:
Sugar, Butter, sugar, white flour, cheese (except for non fat which they do make Kraft Fat Free Cheese or Low Fat String Cheese), Processed Tomato sauce/spaghetti sauce (try to make spaghetti sauce from scratch or get a healthier sauce which is Ragu or Prego and add ground turkey or lean ground beef to it), Chips, Carrots minimal, corn minimal, white/russet potatoes, lowfat yogurt/nonfat as it has a lot of sugar in it usually, white breads and pastas. Fast Food. If you do eat out ask for the Light menu or healthier option menu. Most sit down restaurants have this menu but you have to ask for it.

Good Fats,
Nuts, Seeds, natural nut butters, avocado, low fat cheese, low fat salad dressing, olives, olive oil, flas seed, and fish oil

Good Protein:
Chicken, Turkey, eggs/egg whites, tuna, tilapia, lean ground beef, ham, pork, low fat cottage cheese, soy products, and protein powder.

Good Carbohydrates:
Sweet potato, yams, brown rice, oatmeal, quinoa, beans, yogurt (greek), whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, whole wheat tortillas, apples, citrus fruit, berries, bananas, and vegetables.  

Ok I know this is totally overwhelming but if you have any questions let me know.
Diet is 75% of the equation. I had no idea until I started this back in October. It has really opened my eyes. At first I felt like I couldn't eat anything like it was a punishment and I felt like giving in and eating the way I use to because it was easier. It only took about a month to get things down and now I can't remember how I use to eat/cook. Shopping at the store is different. I make better choices.  My children now love the whole wheat pasta, brown rice and ground turkey. At first they didn't want to eat it or it tasted different. Now that is all I buy and they eat it with out any complaint.